Wendy Jonathan doesn’t have a bucket list. She has a “shipping container list.”

“The reason I have a shipping container list is that if you have a bucket list, once you finish everything, what do you do with your bucket? You’re supposed to kick it, right? That means you die,” Jonathan said. “Well, I don’t want to die when I’m done with mine. When my shipping container’s empty, I have to fill it again, and you can’t really kick a shipping container.”

After retiring from over 25 years of teaching in 2012, her shipping container list included serving on a school board. Jonathan was finished with the classroom, but she wasn’t ready to step away from education just yet.

After attending every single Desert Sands Unified School District board meeting for a year, she was voted into the school board and has served since the 2012-2013 school year. Jonathan then represented the county as a Riverside County School Board secretary when she was elected into the board in 2016.

In September, Jonathan was appointed to the California School Boards Association as the Region 18 Director, representing 40 school districts in Riverside County and Imperial County. The association represents elected school board members across the state.

As a director, she supports and gives voice to the school districts under her jurisdiction. She is the first director to represent region 18, which includes Riverside County and Imperial County,from the Coachella Valley.

“We have unique needs,” she said, “that rest of California doesn’t always understand. Southern California can look very drastic, if you’re on the coast versus inland. And when they think of Riverside County, they don’t think of (the Coachella Valley).”

Jonathan started her career as an attendance clerk at Palm Desert Charter Middle School primarily because she wanted a similar work schedule as her children’s school schedule. But a week later, she decided to go back to school to get her teaching credential. For a year, she worked as a clerk and went to school at night.

She began teaching fifth grade a year later, in 1990, in the Palm Springs Unified School District.

Most fulfilling moment

One day, a student walked into Jonathan's fifth grade classroom in the Palm Springs Unified School District, struggling and reading at a first grade level.

“I heard I was going to have my hands full with him,” she said, “but there was something about him and we just clicked.”

Over the next few months, the student had “drastic growth,” improving his reading to the high-end third grade level. But right before winter break, the student approached Jonathan with tears in his eyes. He had to leave the school – he was moving away with his father and would have to attend a new school.

Jonathan approached the school principal and the student’s family and got permission drive the student to school from his new home and drop him back off every day.

“For the rest of the school year, I picked him up," she said. "The advantage was he was there after school, so I was able to tutor him.”

School board perspectives

Because of her experience as a teacher, Jonathan has a broader perspective as a school board member.

“In education, sometimes we have this adversarial relationship between the staff, the teachers or the board and administration,” Jonathan said.

School board members aren't the enemy, she realized.

“We really do try to make sure that we’re listening and hearing what people say, trying to make the best decision and ultimately the decision that will be the best for our students," she said.

As a school board member, Jonathan has never missed a meeting. Once, she even attended a meeting remotely from Belize, on a sailing trip.

“I wanted to make a point, because I’m an elected official," she said. “They didn’t just elect me to sit there. My job is to be active.”

District and school involvement

Jonathan makes an effort to visit every school in the district at least once a year.

She also visits the school she formerly taught at, Ronald Reagan Elementary School, often, going to back-to-school nights, open house nights and other events, said Mark Baldwin, principal of Ronald Reagan Elementary School.

“She’s been particularly supportive as a board member of school sites, and acknowledges the diversity in Desert Sands,” Baldwin said. “No school’s alike, so she’s been supportive of the differences.”

Jonathan is also involved in the Ophelia Project, a group mentoring program for girls from eighth to twelfth grades, as a mentor.

“Because of Wendy, there’s been in-depth knowledge of how the district works and functions,” Susan Francis, chief executive officer of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Foundation, said. “She was an invaluable resource for us and when she wanted to become a mentor, it upped our game to have someone with Wendy’s background and status being interested in being a volunteer in the program.”

Jonathan is also committed to her role as a school board member, said Bill Newberry, president of the Riverside County School Board Association.

Ever since she joined the school board, Newberry said, she has shown a willingness to learn from outside the region.

“She is out there wanting to learn as much as she can, develop her skills, and become a great advocate for kids," Newberry said.

Education reporter Jenny Ung can be reached at Jenny.Ung@desertsun.com and (760) 218-2427.